Kilkenny

So, after getting up at an ungodly hour to catch the train to Kilkenny, I catch the train to Kilkenny. Promptly I am transported via said train to the town of Kilkenny.
It's a beautiful little medieval town, with exactly the kind of winding streets and olden times houses as you would expect of a little medieval town in the middle of Ireland. The first thing you're greeted with as you exit the train station, provided you don't wander off in the wrong direction to begin with (as I may or may not have done), is a pretty little church in an immaculately maintained churchyard. So, following the perfectly simple directions laid out to me by the website of the hostel I was to stay in I managed to go down the wrong street within 10 minutes. I began to suspect this was the case 5 minutes later, and my suspicions were confirmed when I arrived again at the train station. I promptly removed my jumper, convincing myself that it was because all this walking around was getting me too hot, but secretly hoping that all the people I had passed would not recognize me and realize I was the ignorant tourist I am.
So, after finally finding the hostel, the serious sightseeing began. First was the dominating feature of the city, Kilkenny castle. Like the places I refused to see in Dublin, I had been this before. However, it's the kind of place worth seeing twice. As I found out, the guided tour I took last time unfortunately no longer runs, and you have to see the whole place solo with a little information sheet explaining every room. Still, it was interesting and I re-learned a number of things I had forgotten from last time. A castle has stood here for over 8 centuries (he paraphrases from his guide pamphlet) and was the traditional home of the prestigious Butler family for almost 600 years. The last butler died only a few years ago, so the family, no longer getting any personal service, moved into a local hotel. Apparently the last surviving Butler sold the castle for a token 50 pounds.
So, after Kilkenny castle I took one of those road train city tours you know from just about every city you've been to. The tour itself wasn't that noteworthy for a blog, but I will be drawing from what I learned from it throughout, so it wasn't a complete waste of money. Besides, it gave me something to do until 12:45 when the bus to the Dunmore Caves arrived.
There's only one bus that goes in that relative direction. As I understand it, a lot of "public" busses in Ireland actually consists of privately owned coaches that go on whatever route they decide is worth doing. As such the advice I've been used to getting is along the lines of "just wait at the stop between such and such a time and it should be there" and "make sure you ask the driver when he thinks he'll be back that way". Still, it all went well, although the dropoff to the caves was about a kilometre from the actual caves. I don't mind walking. And the caves were truly phenomenal. Being state owned, entrance to the caves was relatively cheap, and the tour was fantastic. As you would expect there was a fair amount of geology explained as well as a small amount of biology, regarding bats and whatnot, but what a lot of caves don't have yet this one does is History. I won't bore you with the obligatory explanation of cave formation, but the history was truly interesting. Now, Kilkenny lies directly on the way between Dublin and Waterford, and in the 10th century the vikings ruling the former and the vikings ruling the latter decided to have a bit of a war. On the way to battle, the Dublin army passed by a small settlement directly near the caves. The vikings thought they could make some nice slaves of the townspeople, so the peasants hid themselves in the caves. The men apparently tried, unsuccessfully, to defend the mouth of the cave while the women and children hid inside. The vikings, after mopping the floor with the poorly equipped farmer men, lit enormous fires within the caves to smoke the others out. Many of them died inside as the fires drank all the oxygen and they suffocated. What a pleasant bedtime story. Particularly interesting is the fact that a major viking hoard of treasure was found in the cave only in 1999, in an embarassingly obvious spot only a metre or two from the main tour path. The cave has been operating tours since at least the 1970s.

Dunmore Cave's resident Bat
slowly being encased in carbonite

So after visiting the cave I returned to the bus stop and waited an hour for the damn bus. Back in Kilkenny I visited my final attraction, St. Canice's cathedral. I sort of feel like I should know what St. Canice was famous for, but honestly even after my second visit I have no idea. I do know, however, that the Gaelic translation of Canice is where Kilkenny gets its name. The interesting part of the cathedral, however, was the round tower standing outside. This was built in the 9th century presumably to allow people to spit on the heads of unsuspecting passers by. I have a thing for climbing monuments, so I slogged up the 6 sets of stairs (more like ladders, but anyway), to get a view of the city. After that I was thoroughly shagged out, so I decided to do some more pubs. That's for the next post.